Adrian Chen

The world scratched its head yesterday when it learned that former Chicago Bulls star Dennis Rodman is in North Korea, spreading a message of world peace via extreme facial piercings and basketball just days after North Korea's latest nuclear test. (And also filming an HBO documentary with the Harlem Globetrotters and VICE.) But the choice of Rodman actually seems inspired if you consider this photo of a young Kim Jong Un Kim Jong-Chul, Kim Jong Un's younger brother, glowering at the camera in Rodman's number 91 Bulls jersey from his days at a Swiss boarding school. The Kim clan are noted basketball fanatics, and all apparently a fondness for the Rodman-era Bulls, reportedly.

Kim Jong-Il's successor is his youngest son, Kim Jong-un. It's time to meet the most…
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Rodman's agent claims he'll have an audience with Kim Jong Un himself. Maybe seeing Rodman in the flesh will inspire in Kim such a powerful nostalgia those innocent days in the 90s, when he may have been just one of millions of snot-nosed teens in Rodman jerseys around the world, that he'll start weeping and quit being Supreme Leader to join Rodman on a worldwide series of one-on-one exhibition games.

Update: This article originally identified the kid in the picture as Kim Jong Un. It's actually Kim Jong Un's younger brother, Kim Jong-Chul. The photo was reported in 2009 to be Kim Jong Un but later reporters pointed out the error.